Menace

photogravure

15” x 19”

2005/2018

How does one identify a peril and risk especially when the entire situation is not visible? Darkness and uncertainty go hand in hand, obfuscating intentions. Playing off the tropes of film noir and horror as well as the aesthetics of the early photography, Type A explores the seemingly timeless existence and authority of male threat.

Shrouded in darkness, these photogravures find each member of Type A enacting a series of poses, some of which are overtly hostile while others are more ambiguous, the inky black hiding key details that could clarify the situation. Other poses are less overt, employing placating and oddly intimate gestures. Yet the threat of danger is imposed within each tableau. Continuing with their examination of masculine interaction, the immediate target in creating Menace is the other member of Type A. Once printed and exhibited, the target is extended to the audience, allowing each viewer to interpret the depicted situation.

Instillation view of Menace as part of the Masculinities series at The Gund Gallery, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH. 

Though Type A’s photographic process utilizes contemporary technology, printing as photogravures connects the final print to photography’s late 19th and early 20th century history as a nascent popular medium. This painstakingly detailed process provides a singular beauty while promising a stable, archival object. Each print has within it close to 200 years of aesthetic history and authority. With this in mind, Menace presents the idea of male threat as something entrenched in history, something that has survived and will continue to exert its presence.